Email news alerts

Why is there a restriction on the alerts quota to 5 keyword alerts & 10 company alerts?

We wanted to enhance usability and ensure that users do not end up with too many alerts that it becomes unmanageable. We have attempted to create a balance in the number of keyword alerts that you may have. However, if you have exceeded your 5 keyword alert limit there are several options you may wish to consider.

• You may wish to concentrate your keyword alerts. In other words, instead of having 3 separate alerts of for example, “Foreign Affairs”, “Bonds” and “Parliament”, you could condense these to one keyword alert with the following Boolean terms “Foreign Affairs” OR Bonds OR Parliament.
• If you have a keyword alert set up with a company name e.g. Pearson. You can switch this to a company alert instead using UK:PSON as the search term. Please bear in mind that you will not have to know the company symbol for the company as this will appear as you type the name into the company alert field. This methodology will bring you the same resulting email as a ‘Pearson’ keyword alert.

Will the layout remain the same?

There has been an improvement in the layout of the service. This falls in 2 areas, both of which have been implemented to align your experience across the site:

• The alerts page now enables you to create, edit and delete your current alerts all on the same page. All your news alerts management can now be accessed from one central point on the site. The setup is also clearer in how to set up your keyword and companies alerts.
• The email alert itself has essentially stayed the same although there are some changes. Both the ‘once a day’ and ‘immediate’ alerts now contain the headline and first paragraph rather than the ‘immediate’ alerts having full text. This is in the event you click through on an ‘immediate’ alert a couple of hours after it is delivered. This will now take you to the most up to date version of the article which may have been updated on the site.

Why are some of my alerts missing?

During the data migration we found some deleted alerts, alerts which no longer exist (old company symbols etc), or alerts we just could not understand (corrupt alerts). We did not include this in the new alerts service. We have tried to clean up your data and ensure that the new alerts service would have only your workable alerts.

Why are some of my alerts set to ‘on vacation’?

During the data migration to the new service we needed to ensure that all alerts that you did not want to receive were not sent out. You will now be able to reactivate your alerts at your convenience.

Why do I have more than 5 keyword alerts when the limit is set to 5?

You had more than 5 keyword alerts when the data was being migrated. In order for us as not to delete any of your current alerts we decided to allow all alerts to be migrated across. These alerts will continue to work and be active unless you make any changes. Due to the new limits, any edits, additions or deletions to the extra keywords will result in you having to reduce the maximum number of keyword alerts back to 5.

Will the functionality of the News Alerts Service remain the same in terms of how the alerts are sent?

Yes - the way in which the keywords / companies are searched within the text and picked out to create the alerts will remain the same.

Which level of access will I need to view the alerts?

The news alerts service is accessible to all registered users of ft.com